On Nov. 17-18, Boy Scout Troop 632 and Cub Scout Pack 607 along with the local Girl Scouts collected items at Tecumseh stores to send to the troops stationed at Camp Mike Spann in Afghanistan. We would like to thank the store managers at Jerry’s Market for not only opening up their store to us for the collection and exchanging many items which were too large to ship for smaller sizes, and for discounting the items for us so we could get even more. Thanks to them and the management at Walgreen’s Drugs and Shopko, we were in just two days able to collect a total of 1,007 pounds of goods valued at $5,240, plus more than $1,600 in donations to ship 104 boxes to Camp Spann in time for Christmas.

The now-shipped boxes contain basic hygiene items, laundry detergent, snacks and many handmade Christmas cards from the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts. The packages will be a welcome sight at the Camp Spann food pantry, which is being run by a former Scoutmaster of B.S.A. Troop 632, Mark Kirkendall. He has told us that the camp PX store has been closed this year, requiring the soldiers to travel to other nearby camps over sometimes dangerous territory to obtain these basic items.

I would like to say a BIG “thank you” to the citizens who shopped at these stores for their more than generous donations of goods and money that weekend, and the store managers of the three stores (Jerry’s, Walgreens, and Shopko) for their support, and especially the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts of Tecumseh.

Also a very special thank you to “Scout Mom and Dad” Vic and Karen Trigaux, along with their Eagle Scout son, Josh, who devoted their Thanksgiving holiday to the packaging of the thousands of items.

Also, last but not least, the workers at the Tecumseh Post Office, who worked for 3 ½ hours processing and shipping the boxes.

This massive effort will put a smile on the faces of these soldiers who can’t be home with their families this Christmas.